carlos murphy's

for whatever reason the restaurant, Carlos Murphy's, popped up in my mind tonight as i was collecting the photos i posted earlier.  those pics are the result of a long walk i took in the early evening a couple of weeks ago thru midtown/downtown listening to Halloween radio on my phone.  but why Carlos Murphy's?  i dunno exactly.  it specialized in a fusion of irish-mexican fare.  located across the street from Cal Expo, home of the CA State Fair, it was a chain restaurant that had locations, i just learned from a quick google search, in Emeryville, & other cities.  i admit that i never ate at Carlos Murphy's.  have no excuse why not.  i think it had a reputation as an older crowd's dating scene.  i could be wrong about that.  my parents never bothered to take the family there.  & by the time i was old enough to go on my own my interests often led me elsewhere.  but just the idea of a marriage between mexican & irish dishes sounds interesting.  even its name is a hybrid, like so many things that are of CA & American culture[s].  Carlos Murphy's folded in the late '80s or sometime in the '90s.  the building sat derelict for many years.  until it was torn down.  now the whole area is rebuilt with medical buildings, apartment complexes etc etc.  my memories are not as keen as they used to be.  partly due to age, i guess.  i recall reading online a bit of advice.  take pictures of everything.  because everything changes & when they do you will have your memories of places, people & things preserved.  how often have you driven past some place & asked yourself, what was there before this?  because our memories fade or self-delete we often forgot even the very things we would look at for years.  until they are gone.  replaced by something else.  so Carlos Murphy's is now a memory of a restaurant that i'd see so often i took it for granted.  an 'irish-mexican cafe' because why the hell not.  

peace & love